If you choose to make a homemade cleaning solution, just fill the tank of your cleaner with water, and add a tablespoon of ammonia.

Then add some dishwashing liquid and you’re done – it’s that simple.

You might want to turn the machine on and let it run without any items for 5-10 minutes so that the solution gets mixed well.

Remember to Heat It Up

One of the common mistakes people make when using an ultrasonic cleaner is to put cold water in the tank. For the cleaning solution to work best, it needs to be hot.

There are ultrasonic cleaners that have a built-in heater to ensure that the solution is heated up. However, these models can be much more expensive than the regular ones.

All you need to do is just heat the water up before you put it in the tank (do not bring the water to a boil, though). Then you can mix in the ammonia and the dishwashing liquid.

The Cleaning Process

After you have filled the tank with hot water and poured the cleaning liquid, you can put your jewelry inside. Don’t put in too many pieces at once, though, so as not to scratch your jewelry.

Turn the device on and let it run for as long as needed until you jewelry is clean. (Depending on how dirty the items are, this time usually varies from 1 to 20 minutes.)

After the cleaning is done, switch the cleaner off and leave your jewelry inside for another 5-10 minutes so that the dirt particles that were knocked off your pieces by the sound waves can fall to the bottom of the tank.

After you take your jewelry out, you can clean it briefly with a soft brush to make sure that any residual dirt is removed, especially from the mountings of your rings.

Rinse the items to wash off any remaining detergent, and dry them with a soft cloth.

How Often Should You Use an Ultrasonic Cleaner?

The frequency of using an ultrasonic cleaner will depend on how quickly your jewelry gets dirty.

In general, you can clean your jewelry with ultrasound every couple of weeks.

If you wear you pieces every day and they accumulate dirt more quickly, you can clean them every week.

As long as your jewelry is made of materials that can take ultrasound, cleaning your items more often will not hurt them.

What You Should Not Put in an Ultrasonic Cleaner

Not all jewelry should be cleaned with an ultrasonic device.

Many gemstones can be easily damaged by ultrasound. Do not put in softer gemstones such as opals, lapis lazuli, emeralds, turquoise, etc.

Organic jewelry such as pearls, coral pieces, or amber can also be damaged.

Which Are the Best Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaners to Buy?

This ultrasonic cleaner is ideal for cleaning jewelry. Its ultrasonic frequency is 42,000 Hz, and it has 5 preset cleaning cycles ranging from 1.5 to 8 minutes. It comes with a basket and has a capacity of 20 oz (600 mL).

Another great ultrasonic cleaner from Magnasonic. This one also works at 42,000 Hz cleaning frequency. It is a little bit cheaper, as it has only one cleaning cycle, which is 3 minutes. The capacity is 20 oz (600 mL).

This great cleaner has 3 adjustable power levels – use lower power for the more delicate items and higher power for the less delicate ones. There are 5 preset cleaning cycles – the shortest is 90 seconds and the longest is 8 minutes. The water tank is removable and has a capacity of 17 oz.